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Socialist Book Club
Inspired by JohnT's science fiction book club (Foundation is the March book peeps!) and the number of socialist/communist/anarchists in the forum, I thought maybe we could have a socialist book club.
So, each month we should nominate a book to be read the next month. Then we vote.
Some guidlines, I think, are in order. First, it should be easily accessable. No trying to foist some obscure work, like say, Oskar Lange's Economic Theory of Socialism on folks. www.marxists.org has a huge free library of books by many different authors, in mulitple languages. I think that should be a starting place when thinking of suggesting a book.
Second, it doesn't necessarily have to be a left wing author. Henry Kissinger, Adolf Hitler, would all be suitable authors. I think, however, at first, we might wish to concentrate on leftists classics.
Third, it should be relatively short. Don't nominate Capital or Wealth of Nations. They're too long to do in a month. That said, if it's the will of the group to try and tackle a bigger work, we could divide it up into several months work, a chapter a week or so.
Fourth, lean towards primary works. Don't nominate Tony Cliffs interpretation of Lenin's State and Revolution (if there is such a thing), nominate State and Revolution.
So, with that said, I would like to nominate Fredreich Engel's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific for March. This is the work that turned socialism into a Marxist movement. Prior to this booklet being released, socialism was a bunch of competing different ideologies. At the request of the French section of the First International, Engels editted a few chapters of his larger work Anti-Dühring into a pamphlet expaining what socialism was, from where it arose, and the Marxist view of socialism. It spread throughout the socialist movement and was far more important that the Communist Manifesto, in gaining adherents to Marxism. It's a fairly easy place to start.
So, each month we should nominate a book to be read the next month. Then we vote.
Some guidlines, I think, are in order. First, it should be easily accessable. No trying to foist some obscure work, like say, Oskar Lange's Economic Theory of Socialism on folks. www.marxists.org has a huge free library of books by many different authors, in mulitple languages. I think that should be a starting place when thinking of suggesting a book.
Second, it doesn't necessarily have to be a left wing author. Henry Kissinger, Adolf Hitler, would all be suitable authors. I think, however, at first, we might wish to concentrate on leftists classics.
Third, it should be relatively short. Don't nominate Capital or Wealth of Nations. They're too long to do in a month. That said, if it's the will of the group to try and tackle a bigger work, we could divide it up into several months work, a chapter a week or so.
Fourth, lean towards primary works. Don't nominate Tony Cliffs interpretation of Lenin's State and Revolution (if there is such a thing), nominate State and Revolution.
So, with that said, I would like to nominate Fredreich Engel's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific for March. This is the work that turned socialism into a Marxist movement. Prior to this booklet being released, socialism was a bunch of competing different ideologies. At the request of the French section of the First International, Engels editted a few chapters of his larger work Anti-Dühring into a pamphlet expaining what socialism was, from where it arose, and the Marxist view of socialism. It spread throughout the socialist movement and was far more important that the Communist Manifesto, in gaining adherents to Marxism. It's a fairly easy place to start.
maybe if it's one of them "mature" pornstars...
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